-The Indian Express To avoid a substantial fiscal slippage at the state government level, a sizeable expenditure reduction or deferral is likely to be required, given that the borrowing limit set by the Central government acts as a soft constraint to the size of the states’ fiscal deficits. There are growing concerns that the two major sources of tax revenues for state governments, the state goods and services tax (SGST) and...
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Toilet targets: On ending open defecation
-The Hindu The campaign to end open defecation can succeed only if it takes communities with it India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas are now open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in its developmental journey. Cleanliness and sanitation were central to Gandhi’s concerns for his vast number of impoverished countrymen, and should ideally have been pursued zealously by governments...
More »With low birth weight and child deaths, malnourishment remains a big challenge for Centre's ambitious POSHAN Plan -Sneha Mordani
-News18.com A government study shows children are not eating in spite of adequate food availability, while experts too say 90 per cent of kids in India may not be hungry in terms of hunger but they are hungry in terms of nutrition. New Delhi: The Central government’s ambitious POSHAN nutrition programme that focuses on the first 1,000 days of a newborn, including the nine-month pregnancy period, is staring at a major challenge:...
More »Noted Gandhian economist Dr Sudarshan Iyengar interviewed by Rutam Vora (The Hindu Business Line)
-The Hindu Business Line Noted Gandhian economist Dr Sudarshan Iyengar surveys the distressed agricultural landscape, pinpoints its weaknesses, and prescribes solutions with their roots in Gandhian agronomics. Edited excerpts from an interview to BusinessLine: * Given the agrarian crisis in India today, how relevant are Gandhi's economic principles based on the village economy, and equitable distribution of resources? They are relevant in the context of Gandhi's view of gram swaraj (village self-rule), which...
More »Women sarpanchs tell UN how rural India's power structure is changing
-IANS In the early days after the quota of women's elected membership -- initially 33 per cent and later raised to 50 per cent in 20 of the 28 states -- was introduced, many women were acting as proxies for their male relative. UNITED NATIONS: Two women sarpanchs have brought to the UN the story of India changing the rural power structure by empowering women through a programme of gender equality that...
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